Hospital Struggles in Mumbai and Delhi, why?
Niti Aayog few months ago warned about the healthcare situation in India and specifically some States. Many experts are focussed on Hospital beds, but Hospital beds have to be run by healthcare workers. Let us look at how states are performing on Healthcare workers
Maharashtra had 43 physicians, nurses and midwives per 10000 population
Delhi had 44
Gujarat had 43
Bengal has 27
MP has 33
All the above States have high death rates and medium to high cases
Let us look at some States with high to medium cases and few deaths
Tamil Nadu had 71 physicians, nurses and midwives per 10000 population
Karnataka had 72
Andhra Pradesh 92
Rajasthan had 50
In fact, 35% of all doctors operate out of the South (Only 21% of the population live there). Rajasthan is one of the rare low income States that had a very high number of healthcare workers per 10000 population.
So it is clear that when Cases go up, having more beds is not enough. Having more healthcare workers is extremely crucial. With cases piling up, India’s biggest challenge will be healthcare workers, not infrastructure.
Data Source: Niti Aayog